5 years of inconsistent speeds.

*** I posted this on a thread of someone else's (someone that was having the exact same issue as me, like many others) and it got completely ignored, but that's fine. I'll gladly make my own thread for this, even though the thread I made in 2018 is now locked for some reason. The issue was never resolved, nor did I end up receiving any sort of message from anyone about the issue. So, why it got locked: I have no idea. ***

But, here I am! I'm back and I'm going ALL OUT this time. If this isn't fixed OR at least addressed in some sort of way, like ASAP, I'll be cancelling my services at the end of this month, once and for all.

I've been with Shaw since 2014, maybe even earlier. I've had issues with my speeds, causing me to be unable to live stream to Twitch, watch streams and videos (you name it....) without casual buffering since DAY 1 of paying for their services. I made a thread about this exact issue a little while back. NOTHING ever came out of it, of course.... and I've been treated like I'm either lying or I'm just insane - ever since I brought up this issue to Shaw YEARS ago.

I've probably called Shaw 20+ times over the last 2 years in regards to the issue of not only inconsistent speeds, but the fact that speeds seem to drop to absolute 0 at times (the speeds act as if I'm being throttled or something). Except for the fact that it can happen at any time at random, for a random amount of time (whether it be a casual speed drop for 30 seconds out of nowhere, and then it's fine for the rest of the day - OR, casual speed drops for minutes at a time, coming and going over and over for the entire day; sometimes lasting for DAYS until I finally get a day where it doesn't drop).

I've had technicians come here at least a DOZEN times over the last 2 years for the exact same issue and nothing ever comes out of it. Same process, every time: wanting to replace the modem (legit have gone through like a dozen at this point, lol) followed by doing a few speed tests (usually it just so happens to come back with fine results when they're here, of course....) and concluding that everything seems fine. It's almost as if no one is listening to what we're saying here. It's an intermittent issue. Just because a speed test or two comes back fine at a random point during the day when they're here, doesn't mean it's fixed or that the issue doesn't actually exist. I REALLY wish the issue would replicate while they happen to be here and at my computer doing speed tests for that short period of time (aka 5 minutes), but it hasn't happened yet and I've had technicians tell me: "you have us scratching our heads at this point and we simply don't know what to tell you".

*** just to be very clear, everything - and I mean EVERY THING on my end, from modem to tap (even my PC is brand new as of February) is brand new and some things have been replaced multiple times, just because that's what Shaw likes to do. Keep replacing everything until things magically work. (been through over a dozen modems, have tried MANY ethernet cables, have tried using bridge mode, have attempted to use a router with my Shaw modem being bridged, coax cable has been replaced twice, splitters have been replaced multiple times, lines have been replaced, I could go on and on....) I've legit been working on trying to solve this issue for 5 YEARS at this point. So uh, yeah. I've tried everything physically possible. This is definitely a problem on Shaw's end. ***

I was a Twitch streamer that made a big portion of my income from live streaming. Yet, I finally had to completely give that up, due to the inconsistent speeds that ruined every other stream that I attempted to put on. The inconsistent speeds held me back from reaching my potential for YEARS, but it finally started to get to the point of simply ruining my brand entirely. In other words, Shaw's inconsistent speed drops that they refuse to acknowledge and attempt to solve is what forced me to quit live streaming as a whole and I'm now out looking for a new job that isn't online related. Absolutely pathetic.

Just as a little bit of backstory.... This December that just passed was when I finally lost it and started calling non stop until SOMETHING different was done. Long story short: it resulted in finally getting a technician that seemed like he genuinely wanted to help. After a week or so of "investigating" by them, they found a faulty line in the area and they said they had replaced it. It was interesting, because suddenly things seemed fine for a solid month. Not a single drop until the end of January.... then they came back. I don't know if it was coincidental or what, but something seems fishy at this point. There's no way that it's a physical problem in the area causing the issue. I've seen so many people on here that have this EXACT same problem, it's gotta be an issue on Shaw's end.... and it needs to be fixed ASAP. The drops have been occurring on and off again since the end of January and I've simply had enough at this point. I don't pay $126 a month for this nonsense.

I got angry again about a week or two ago and ended up talking to Shaw's Help page on Twitter through DMs and had them wanting to "book a specialist to check things out in the area, because it clearly isn't an issue within your home!". Well, the day finally came where the specialist was apparently supposed to check out the area and look for any interference or physical issues that were potentially causing the issue.... and it turns out that they actually booked another technician to just come to my house for basic help (because I DEFINITELY haven't had enough of those appointments, lol). Once I explained to the technician that this wasn't the kind of appointment that I was told I was getting, he offered to "try and possibly help figure it out anyway". Of course, being the nice person that I am, I decided to let him continue doing his thing. All he really did was do some speed tests and determine that everything looked fine, then left. Of course, speeds weren't dropping during that moment in time of him being here.... so again, I'm treated as if I'm just making this stuff up.

The only reason I haven't switched ISPs yet is because I live in a small city with only 1 other ISP option and they only offer a maximum of 1.5mbps of upload. Unless you have their fiber in your area, which I don't and I have been waiting to have it in my area for years, honestly. It's supposed to be installed and ready to go by October.... so if Shaw continues to show that they don't want to address this issue like ASAP, you BETTER believe I'll be switching ISPs immediately and waiting for their fiber to be installed (which is very soon). I've heard nothing but amazing things about ISP and their fiber internet.

There is CLEARLY a ton of people with this issue.... and only more and more people are speaking out about it. I'm seeing threads EVERYWHERE about it now. Just because I'm the "only one in my neighborhood that's complained about this specific issue", doesn't mean I'm just making stuff up. We want answers and we want them now.

This is your last chance from myself, and many others as well I'm sure.

jadonprez there may be several other reasons to why you are noticing issues with your upload. It could be potential self-saturation when you are uploading on other devices while trying to stream. We definitely want to help resolve the issue. Please provide me some traceroutes or WinMTR to the twitch servers during the times that are good and bad so I can investigate.

I can absolutely, positively confirm that it is not self-saturation in any way because I specifically have my own modem/router setup for myself, with nothing else connected other than my PC when I try to stream. There is absolutely nothing downloading/uploading in the background either.

I'm also quite certain this has nothing to do with a routing issue; it's seems like it's just a straight up speed issue. I just happen to stream to Twitch, which requires you to have a "stable" upload speed, which I do not have and haven't had stable speeds for years.

Anyways, I can provide a traceroute if you'd really like.... although, I'm honestly positive this is simply just an issue of speed inconsistency/speeds dropping extremely low at random for what is "apparently" unknown reasons. From what I've seen (so far), it seems like the traceroutes come back looking about the same every time, whether I'm having drops or not. But here's what it usually looks like:

Tracing route to live-ord.twitch.tv [52.223.226.223]over a maximum of 30 hops:

I should also mention that I've even tried streaming to other places such as Mixer, YouTube and even tried using restream.io and it's the same result no matter what I stream to.

When I do have these issues of "frames dropping due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls", if I proceed to do a speed test, the results will show that my speeds are not anywhere near what they should be; sometimes close to absolute zero, like I've said.

Anyhow, I appreciate the response. I truly do hope something can come out of this, but I'll be honest. I really mean it when I say that my patience is unfortunately wearing thin. Especially because I've had 3 different people from Shaw this month alone (the 1 technician who was accidentally booked here the other week, and 2 others on the phone from the two times I've called in the past week and a half) tell me that they're "getting someone to look further into things and you should hear something within the next few days" and I still haven't received anything from anyone. It's almost as if they're at a point of thinking that I'm just lying and it's their new way of getting me to shut up for another week or so.

yeah, I always get given results for "live-ord.twitch.tv" which is Chicago's server, even though I have much better ping to Toronto's servers (which should be "live-yto") but it's not by a huge margin. Chicago is the 2nd closest server to me, so I've never really bothered to question it. But still, it's definitely sort of questionable as for why it really does ping that server, rather than "yto".

anyways, here's the traceroute results while being connected straight to the modem:

Tracing route to live-ord.twitch.tv [52.223.226.111]over a maximum of 30 hops:

I've looked into this a little more, and maybe there really is some sort of routing issue going on here. Still doesn't make sense as for why I have speed consistency issues, but maybe I'm having a bit of both. Which, ultimately is making things twice as bad. Although, I'd rather get this routing issue sorted if there really is one. Something doesn't seem right, that's for sure

jadonprez thank you for providing more information. Can you also run a traceroute to Youtube and Google so we can review if there are some issues? I was able to locate your account and do see some errors showing up. From your last technician visit, did they swap out the modem?

and no, they did not swap out the modem.... because it's been swapped out an insane amount of times already, over the years. Like I said in my original post, I've probably gone through about a dozen now. The modem is clearly not the issue at this point.

Anyhow, here are the traceroutes to YouTube and Google.

Tracing route to youtube.com [216.58.192.174]over a maximum of 30 hops:

Interesting.... I'm actually using the google DNS servers, which makes things even more interesting in regards to why my traceroute is so slow compared to yours.

Although, I must say. My internet speeds have been absolutely atrocious once again today; speeds dipping near absolute 0 again and spiking back up, repeating every 60 seconds or so, lasting hours before seeming fineand then eventually starting all over again. I did traceroutes while the speeds were going for a dive and I preeeetty much get the same results, regardless of whether or not my speeds are awful or seem fine.

I'm honestly getting to the point of being just completely done here. I can't keep paying this much per month to NOT be able to stream.It makes no sense. I'm literally better off cancelling my internet, saving myself $126 a month and just using my phone's data to do just about all my internet allows me to do anyways.... this is getting way too frustrating. To have4 people from Shaw in the last 3 weeks tell me "it's being passed on to someone who will look further into the issue, you should receive a call within a day or two" and then to just receive nothing? What am I waiting for? At this point, I'm just wasting my time, wasting my money and waiting for a damn phone call (that probablyisn't even coming) while this nonsense ruins what I have in regards to my "brand" online. It's seriously pathetic.

I've tried real hard to be patient, but I've been too patient and too kind for way too long. I really do mean it when I say that this is the last chance I'm giving Shaw. Hopefully something can come out of this, asap. I just wanna be able to do what I need to do, man. I'm not expecting 15 mbps upload and 300 mbps download at all times or whatever. I'm only trying to use 5 mbps of upload (aka a third of what I should be getting) and for my speeds to dip lower than that SO consistently, it's seriously outrageous.

Anyways, I'm just extremely frustrated. I'm basically relying on this thread at this point to get some answers, because calling Shaw isabsolutely 100% useless at this point. Getting a 20th technician to come to the house is quite pointless as well.

I appreciate the input, and yeah. It does seem like something might be a bit off in regards to my routing to Twitch and it looks like Google as well? But it's extremely clear that my speeds are definitely not what they should be when they're dipping like crazy and I follow up with doing a speed test.

jadonprez Thank you for providing the traceroutes and details. If you bypass your Asus router and plug directly to the modem with automatic DNS settings, do you still notice the speed dips (not using Google DNS)? I appreciate your continued patience in working with us to resolve this issue.

As for the errors that are showing up, it may be a modem related issue or potential noise in the lines within/outside your home. What I will recommend is sending us a message on Facebook at m.me/shaw or Twitter @shawhelp to schedule you a senior technician to investigate that and to replace the modem with a Technicolour modem (if one is available) and review the signal for potential noise in the lines. Just mention this thread in the conversation so we get that setup.

Yeah, I used automatic DNS and nothing but the provided modem for years. I only got this router and changed the DNS server to Google DNS very recently; both as a test to basically experiment with things and see if any changes would make a difference.

Also, I would love to try that Technicolour modem. I've called Shaw and asked about it recently and apparently it's not in my area (I'm in northwestern Ontario). I was told it's only available out West at the moment, but I wonder if it's somehow possible to get my hands on one, considering the situation of this?

If you think that might be possible, let me know and I'll bring something like that up to Shaw when I send a DM in a bit.

yeah I've known about that site for a while now. I probably use that speed test more than anything else; it seems to be more accurate than any other speed test site.

in regards to buffer bloat, it sort of spikes here and there in the process of testing download and upload, but I've never seen it do anything absolutely crazy while testing.

Day 3, by the way, of my upload speed being practically non existent.... it's actually now testing BELOW 0.1 mbps at this point, on every device with absolutely nothing uploading in the background, no matter how many times I reset (1 device connected at a time when testing). That's while having my personal router completely out of the equation as well. I've been using only the Shaw modem for the last 2 days.

I'm just gonna DM shaw on Twitter like shaw-tony was talking about. I'm so close to being officially done with all of this.

just here to inform you all, that after waiting 5 days for a senior tech to come here & being booked last Wednesday for today at 4pm - they did not show up or even bother to give me a call or ANYTHING.

I'm not even surprised at this point.

great news though! by extreme coincidence, I actually received a letter in the mail this morning from my local ISP. the letter was informing me that they are finally installing fiber on my street as of now!